Lumen Fidei The Light of Faith Encyclical Letter

Lumen Fidei The Light of Faith Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis

Preliminary information Title : Lumen Fidei (Light of Faith) Type of document: Encyclical Date of Release: 29 June 2013, Solemnity of Peter and Paul Number of Articles: 60

Some specialities of LF The third encyclical in the series of theological virtues. (The other two: Deus Caritas est, Spe Salvi) 7 Most of the parts are credited to Benedict XVI (7) 1 st Encyclical of Francis.

Some Characteristics of the content Several Scriptural references (more from St. John), Journey of faith from Abraham, Mary, saints and apostles, Augustine (predecessor’s favourite saint) to St. Francis of Assisi (present pope’s favourite saint? ), References from sacred and secular world: St Justin, St Thomas Aquinas, Blessed John Paul II, Dante, Nietzsche, T. S. Eliot.

Contents of Lumen Fidei Introduction (Faith and light) Chapter 1: We Have Believed in Love (1 Jn 4: 16) Journey of faith from Abraham to saints Chapter 2: Unless You Believe, You Will Not Understand (Is 7: 9) Faith, truth, love and theology Chapter 3: I Delivered to You What I Also Received (1 Cor 15: 3) Faith and liturgy Chapter 4: God Prepares a City for Them (Heb 11: 16) Faith and society

Salient Themes Faith and Light Pagan world hungered for light. (sol Invictus) Sun did not illumine all reality. But Jesus did. The true Sun (1) Faith is not illusion of light (Nietsche) 2 Faith is not leap into darkness (3) Faith is a light that illumines whole life (4)

Salient Themes Faith, light and Suffering Faith is not a light which scatters all our darkness, but a lamp which guides our steps in the night and suffices for the journey. (57) St. Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa shared in the mystery of suffering of others. But they did not eliminate. (57) “They understood the mystery at work in them. In drawing near to the suffering, they were certainly not able to eliminate all their pain or to explain every evil. ” (57)

Salient Themes Faith, light and Suffering “Christ, having endured suffering, is "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith" (Heb 12: 2). (57) "To those who suffer, God does not provide arguments which explain everything; rather, his response is that of an accompanying presence, a history of goodness which touches every story of suffering and opens up a ray of light. " (57)

Salient Themes Faith and Idolatry Without faith, we turn to all kinds of idols (political ideology, mammon, profit, golden calves) Idolatry: “when a face addresses a face which is not a face. ” Martin Buber (13) Once man has lost the fundamental orientation …, he breaks down into the multiplicity of his desires; …. Idolatry, then, is always polytheism, an aimless passing from one lord to another. Idolatry does not offer a journey but rather a plethora of paths leading nowhere and forming a vast labyrinth. (13) Faith is opposite of idolatry. (13)

Salient Themes Faith and Sacraments The transmission of faith occurs first and foremost in baptism. (41) While the sacraments are indeed sacraments of faith, it can also be said that faith itself possesses a sacramental structure. (40) Faith is transmitted in the sacraments.

Salient Themes Faith and sharing of faith “Faith is not a private matter, a completely individualistic notion or a personal opinion: it comes from hearing, and it is meant to find expression in words and to be proclaimed” (22). The Church’s catechesis has traditionally been structured around these four elements; this includes the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is a fundamental aid for that unitary act with which the Church communicates the entire content of her faith: "all that she herself is, and all that she believes“ (46)

Salient Themes Faith and Truth “Faith without truth does not save, it does not provide a sure footing” (24). Truth leads us to relativism. Faith makes the ultimate Truth relevant. (25) Because God is trustworthy, it is reasonable to have faith in him, to stand fast on his word. He is the same God that Isaiah will later call, twice in one verse, the God who is Amen, "the God of truth" (cf. Is 65: 16), (23)

Salient Themes Faith and Reason Influence of Greek philosophy helped us to understand the meaningful relationship between faith and reason. (32) Faith and reason strengthen each other. (32) By stimulating wonder before the profound mystery of creation, faith broadens the horizons of reason to shed greater light on the world which discloses itself to scientific investigation. (34)

Salient Themes Faith and Trust “In many areas in our lives we trust others who know more than we do. We trust the architect who builds our home, the pharmacist who gives us medicine for healing, the lawyer who defends us in court. We also need someone trustworthy and knowledgeable where God is concerned. Jesus, the Son of God, is the one who makes God known to us (cf. Jn 1: 18). ” (18)

Salient Themes Faith and Church “Faith is not simply an individual decision which takes place in the depths of the believer’s heart…By its very nature, faith is open to the "We" of the Church; it always takes place within her communion. ” ( 39) The Church is a Mother who teaches us to speak the language of faith. (38) Catechumens after baptism are welcomed into the house of their mother and, as part of a new family, pray the Our Father together with their brothers and sisters. (Tertullian). 39. ‘Our true father is Christ, and our mother is faith in him’ Martyr Hierax (5)

Salient Themes Faith as Hearing and Seeing "faith comes from hearing" (Rom 10: 17). 29 Hearing is related to obedience of faith. (Rom. 1: 5) Fourth Gospel: to believe is to hear and see. (30). Seeing and hearing converge in Jesus. We share what we have heard and seen…. (1 Jn 1: 1) Through the sacraments, we experience his touch, hear his word, and See Him. (30). . Only when we are configured to Jesus do we receive the eyes needed to see him. (30)

Definitions of Faith is a light (4) Faith is born of an encounter with the living God who calls us and reveals his love (4) Faith is our response to a word which engages us personally, to a "Thou" who calls us by name. (8) “Believing can be compared to the experience of falling in love; it is something subjective” (27).

Definitions of Faith Believing means entrusting oneself to a merciful love which always accepts and pardons, which sustains and directs our lives, and which shows its power by its ability to make straight the crooked lines of our history. ” (13)

Definitions of Faith “Since faith is one, it must be professed in all its purity and integrity. Precisely because all the articles of faith are interconnected, to deny one of them, even of those that seem least important, is tantamount to distorting the whole. ” (48). “The first setting in which faith enlightens the human city is the family. ” (52)

Salient Quotes "Man is faithful when he believes in God and his promises; God is faithful when he grants to man what he has promised. ” (10) St. Augustine "Without love, truth becomes cold, impersonal and oppressive for people’s day-to-day lives. " (No. 27) “Persons always live in relationship. We come from others, we belong to others, and our lives are enlarged by our encounter with others. Even our own knowledge and self-awareness are relational. ” (38)

Salient Quotes “The Decalogue is not a set of negative commands, but concrete directions for emerging from the desert of the selfish and self-enclosed ego in order to enter into dialogue with God, to be embraced by his mercy and then to bring that mercy to others. ” ( 46). Faith… lights up our way to the future and enables us joyfully to advance along that way on wings of hope. (7) Faith, as remembrance of the future, memoria futuri, is thus closely bound up with hope. (9)

Salient Quotes When faith is weakened, the foundations of humanity also risk being weakened. (55) Faith is passed on, we might say, by contact, from one person to another, just as one candle is lighted from another. (37) We "believe" Jesus when we accept his word, his testimony, because he is truthful. We "believe in" Jesus when we personally welcome him into our lives and journey towards him, clinging to him in love and following in his footsteps along the way. (18)

Evaluation Taken for granted some of the meaning of latin words used in the encyclical. Eg. Sol invctus (1) = Invincible Sun, Taken for granted several non-Christian authors. Highly theological treatise? Lacks pastoral thrust? Missing: Catechesis, New Evangelisation Missing: St. Joseph as one who lived by faith! Exclusive language used.

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